WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz is being forced out of his job, four people briefed on the matter said on Thursday, in the first big shakeup of Trump’s inner circle since he took office in January.
The dismissal was reported by Reuters, CBS, Politico and others.
Politico reported that Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, who has spearheaded the US’s role in talks to end the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and has led negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, is being considered to replace the outgoing national security advisor.
Waltz’s deputy, Alex Wong, an Asia expert who was a State Department official focused on North Korea in Trump’s first term, is also leaving his post, two people told Reuters.
The national security adviser is a powerful role, but one that does not require Senate confirmation.
The National Security Council did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A 51-year-old former Republican lawmaker from Florida, Waltz faced criticism inside the White House when, in March, he was blamed for accidentally adding the editor of The Atlantic to a group chat in the Signal messaging app describing details of an imminent US bombing campaign in Yemen.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, left, speaks with US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as US President Donald Trump meets with France’s President Emmanuel Macron in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on February 24, 2025. (Ludovic Marin/Pool via AP)
During a subsequent cabinet meeting with Waltz in the room, Trump expressed his preference for holding such conversations in a secure setting with lead walls, a clear sign of his displeasure. But he and others in the White House expressed confidence in Waltz at the time.
More recently, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was reported to have shared the same sensitive information about the Yemen attack plans with his wife and brother in a separate chat on the same encrypted messaging app.
However, the Signal controversy was not the only mark against Waltz.
A person familiar with the Cabinet’s internal dynamics said Waltz was too hawkish for the war-averse Trump and was seen as not effectively coordinating foreign policy among a variety of agencies, a key role for the national security adviser.
“The system isn’t running properly,” under Waltz, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
It was not immediately clear who would take over from Waltz, but one option was US special envoy Steve Witkoff, one of the sources said. Politico reported that Witkoff, a businessman and longtime golf buddy of Trump’s, was currently a leading candidate.
US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, foreground, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy Kirill Dmitriev, second left, and Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, left, arrive to attend the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on April 25, 2025. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Witkoff was instrumental in securing the January hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group, and has been involved in efforts to reach another deal.
The January agreement, based on a proposal drawn up the previous spring, secured the release of thirty living and eight slain hostages, in exchange for the release of almost two thousand Palestinian security prisoners, and paused fighting for some two months in the Gaza Strip. The deal collapsed after the first of its three potential phases.
Witkoff has also led US talks with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, aimed at reaching an agreement to prevent the Islamic Republic, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The envoy has laid out contradictory positions amid that process, initially saying the US seeks to cap Iran’s enrichment of uranium, and then declaring it must stop enriching uranium altogether.
He has also been dispatched to Russia to meet with President Vladimir Putin amid American efforts to end the war in Ukraine sparked by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
Witkoff’s comments about that war have drawn criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who accused him last week of “disseminating Russian narratives,” adding the envoy may or may not be conscious of doing so.
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